Homecoming?
by Thais of the Star
Summary: Sequel to Virika of the Dragonfolk. When humans come to the home of the dragonfolk, they must face a difficult decision: A journey into the unknown, or stay, and possibly be pushed even to extinction. The humans will find both old faces and new on the way
1. Departure

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own many of the characters in this story.

Chapter One: _Departure_

Vyrania didn't need to read a notice; she just saw the ships coming and ran back into the forest. Through a route she knew well by now she made her way swiftly back to the home of the dragon-folk. As soon as she was within range for strong telepathic connection she sent her findings to Urtiatch, the queen she had Impressed six months ago.

_They're coming!_

Urtiatch leapt off the rock she had been sunning herself on and broadcast the news to everyone she could reach:

_They're coming!_

It reached Hayatch, who in turn relayed it to Vyrania's sister Virika, as they caught fish from a stream.

Satch, Hayatch's bronze father, heard as he and brown Daymitch, a master of the dragon-folk's fighting techniques and the young's teacher of such things, pitted their knowledge in a friendly match together.

Urtiatch nearly got her wings shredded when she scorched the mind of Cameratch, the queen who was guarding her clutch of seven eggs just below the rock where the youngest queen perched.

Golden Igatch and the youngsters from the clutch she had laid, the one from which her daughter Urtiatch had hatched, brought down their meal, a herdbeast, nearly missing as they heard Urtiatch's call.

All dropped what they were doing and raced as fast as wing or leg could carry them to defend their home.

Virika found Vyrania bracing herself on her knees as she gasped for breath while Urtiatch half held her up. "They're landing… Here! They're… coming!" She panted out her message between gasps, pointing to the beach.

Virika turned away from her younger sister, a sorrowful look in her eyes as she stared at the beach without seeing it. Six months ago, a little after Urtiatch's clutch hatched, her brother Darrinel and their cousin Sofreteh had roused some among the numbweed gatherers to destroy the adult dragon-folk and take the little ones captive.

They had beaten off that attack, but at a high price for the few remaining of the proud people; besides many others, two of their priceless queen companions had been killed. Virika, Satch and Hayatch had their revenge upon Darrinel, but Sofreteh had escaped.

Now their people were landing again. What would the cost be this time to the dragon-folk and to the two humans who were their allies? Would any of them be alive to know the cost?

"Will we be able to hid from them?" asked a green nervously. Her blue took her hands.

"I'm not sure. We won't be able to stay in the cave for long enough…"

Virika turned around to address them. "Then we'll have to leave." As soon as she spoke, silence fell. The dragon-folk spun round to stare at her and Vyrania simply closed her eyes, letting Urtiatch support her.

"She's right." Vyrania opened her eyes. "They'll kill us all on sight. And if they don't, word'll get out that we're here and someone else'll come to get us like Darrinel and Sofreteh did."

"It's true." Satch's voice was heavy. They all knew he was remembering his golden mate, Kilatch, killed six months ago. "And once we're captured there is little we can do in rescue. It is death to fall into their hands."

"We must do as Virika says." Hayatch's voice was choked as she came behind the young woman and set a hand on her shoulder. Boldly, proudly, chin up, she faced her people. Some were speculative, some were nodding sadly in agreement, some in outright denial. "At least until they are gone. Then we can return. I will not risk more of our kind being killed. If all of us-" she waved at Urtiatch and then Igatch "-are slain, how will our people continue?"

Others pressed their opinions, but in the end it was decided. They had to leave.

000

They spent the rest of that day hurriedly packing and stowing all their supplies, mainly meat and hide ropes in the forest. Other shifts transported it further, to a clearing where they would regroup.

Cameratch stayed by her eggs through this all. She knew they could die with this journey, but saw no alternative. At the last moment, when the ships were visible, she and her bronze Bofitch gently packed each of the seven precious shells, so close to hatching time, into slings they and five others were to carry.

At twilight the ships landed. They spent that night onboard. In the darkness the migration of the dragon-folk began over the black Southern forests, from known peril into unknown peril.

000

Hayatch and Urtiatch traveled with Virika and Vyrania, on recently tamed runnerbeasts with two others for luggage the dragon-folk could not carry. All four horses were by now trained not to fear the dragon-folk, used to them in the several months they had been around together. The others flew high above. No one spoke, save through telepathy.

For a time they journeyed over familiar lands. Gradually, fewer knew the territory, mainly the golds and bronzes, with many browns. The greens and blues had ventured further a field in search of food.

At daybreak they landed in the forest, ate of their supplies and slept through the day, posting sentinels. They also sent out some people to see if there were dangers close by.

Virika and Vyrania groomed the riding horses, two mares, the elder sister's a pale gray with oval blobs of black, and the younger girl's a dark gray. They unloaded and groomed the pack animals, a gentle dark brown stallion and a copper-brown mare, and finally fell asleep.

As soon as they had rested they continued on their journey.


	2. Further

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own many of the characters in this story.

Chapter Two: _Further_

They continued on. None of them had a clear idea of where they wished to go. Eventually they decided it would be safe enough to return to beach and continue down. That night they sent Hayatch, Urtiatch, Virika and Vyrania down to scout out some of what lay ahead, and others to scout behind and around for danger.

The two queens and two young women walked for a long time. They eventually became so lost in their thoughts and the familiar rhythms of walking that they didn't stop or look about to see where they were.

Hayatch was the first to notice anything amiss. She stopped the others with an outstretched arm and cocked her head. The humans and younger queen listened. In the distance to their right, up into the forest, they heard screams, feline and human, death and pain, triumph and anger, sorrow and loss and despair.

"They're being attacked!" cried Hayatch, and instinctively moved towards the sounds. Her instincts to stay away from humans did nothing for her hatred of the felines and pity for their victims. The humans sprang after her. Urtiatch hesitated, then came after all of them.

Through the forest they charged headlong until they came out at a devastating scene.

Apparently it have once been a small hold. Now, the surviving family members were three men trying to fight a pack of five remaining felines, three children and two women, who were trying to get up into the higher level of the house, but the felines had knocked a supporting beam from the ceiling somehow and it blocked their way to the top. From the second floor a young boy screamed.

Hayatch roared, her eyes flaming scarlet and yellow and leapt at the men, half-crouching in front of them, fangs bared, wings menacingly half-spread, tail lashing, claws glinting. Urtiatch leapt on a feline who hesitated. The girls ran for all they were worth into the fray.

Virika clung to the back of one, one arm around its neck, stabbing with her belt knife until it fell over with a snap, neck twisting strangely and blood pouring from its side. Vyrania waited no time bestriding her creature's back, but threw her knife, which buried itself into the animal's chest, killing instantly.

Urtiatch slashed hers across the throat and leapt clear. Hayatch tackled one, landing a bite in its throat that spilled its lifeblood instantly, and whacked the other so solidly on the back with her tail that it never moved again.

The dragon-folk's growls faded and their eyes returned to normal blue-greens. Hayatch heard something and went to the wreckage, pulling something out of it gently with both hands. The squalling infant calmed under her gentle touch and she gave it carefully to the woman who reached for it, though plainly terrified of the queen.

One of the men leveled his spear at the eight-foot-tall person, but when she regarded him disdainfully, chin held proudly up and turned her back on him to rejoin her three friends.

"We're sorry to have frightened you." Vyrania almost smiled at her sister's tone, but held herself in check. Virika addressed the men as calmly and quietly as if she had stopped in for a mug of klah with old friends. The effect was spoiled as she wiped clean her blade and sheathed it. As if she had simply shouted 'boo!' from behind them, the younger girl though, amused.

The four turned to leave, when one of the women half slithered, half walked down the stairs, leaving the other clutching the baby Hayatch had returned. "Wait," she said softly. They turned to look at her. She peered hard at the two humans. "Virika? Vyrania?" she asked disbelievingly.

000

Through the grim of the fight they had not recognized her, nor thought it possible for her to be there. All four of them cried out comically, "You!"

"And Hayatch and… Urtiatch?" The two stunned dragon-folk nodded slowly. They did not fancy being captured again, and this was the woman who had brought them food often along with Virisail, the girl's mother when they had been imprisoned.

"How did you get here, Aunt?" Vyrania frowned at her mother' foster sister. The last time they had seen Peklasail was at her wedding three years ago at Ruatha. The sisters looked past her. Now one of the men, the one who had pointed his spear at Hayatch, became recognizable as her husband, Molujind.

"Aunt!" chorused their draconic friends.

"We came, and we like this spot, so here we are." She impatiently brushed that aside. "But _Faranth's_ _eggshells_- what are _you_ doing here!"

Virika and Vyrania glanced at each other, then at the queens, then back at their foster-aunt.

Virika sighed. "_Looong_ story."

Vyrania decided to hurry things up a bit. "Anyway, we've got to go, so it was nice seeing you, Aunt!" She took Virika's hand and towed her back to the forest, the queens following.

"That was a close one," she commented as they reached the beach. "I just hope they don't tell anyone they saw us all."

"If they did they'd just think they're crazy," Virika reminded her.

"Yes, but if they say they saw _us_, as in you and me, someone might just believe them. How else could they know we weren't with mother? I don't think anyone told them."

"We'll be long gone by the time they could tell anyone," her sister assured her. But she knew Vyrania was right.

They said nothing of it to the others when they returned.

000

They judged as they started under way again that they were far enough to escape notice from the humans who had forced them out of their home, and those who carried nothing scouted inland and up the coast.

Hayatch reported in to Virika in mid-afternoon that they, as ever she and Urtiatch worked together, had found a promising site into the jungle. Vyrania and her sister impatiently urged their runnerbeasts along, not thrilled with the idea of going slowly and reaching the possible shelter.

In the early evening they arrived at the two queen's prospective home.

It was inland but, as the other home had been, situated within a stone's throw into the forest. A large rock with many entrances and hollows in its surface had deep caverns large enough for the larges of the dragonfolk, Hayatch, to enter only at a slight stoop, careful to keep her wings from scraping on the rough ceiling. Inside it was surprisingly spacious, and light filtered in through holes in the walls and ceiling.

Outside, some distance to the side, was a grassy area where runners grazed and a clear stream ran quick and cool over polished rocks. On the hot beach sands were some great slabs of rock, three times Hayatch's length including tail, and varying in angle, width and thickness. They were ideal for sunning.

Other dragonfolk came, inspected and approved it vigorously. By the time every one of them had seen it they approved it. Bundles were set away in the caverns and they chose sleeping spots for the night.

They wondered to each other if this were not a better place than their old home anyway.

Virika and Hayatch were awake long after Vyrania and the others. They explored their new temporary situation fully as the stars winked awake and the two moons rose. At last they returned to the others and fell asleep.

**The author would like to say that she had no idea why she stuck the girl's aunt in this story, and Peklasail is not currently planned to turn up again in this story, so just forget about her after this.**


	3. Scouting Expedition

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own many of the characters in this story.

Chapter Three: _Scouting Expedition_

Life was nearly the same as in their other home; the still hunted to eat, defended themselves from curious and hostile creatures and spent much of the free time baking on the rocks. By this time the two human girls had browned sufficiently to the point where they wondered if they were more true to the color than the dragon-folk of that color sect.

After five days in this new area Virika and Vyrania thought that they and their two queens should scout back to their first settlement. They prepared that day and left on the eighth morning following their hasty departure. Carefully they skirted the area where they had met with Aunt Peklasail and did not come in contact with them.

They traveled fast, and the next afternoon came close enough to their destination that in the late evening, when the stares had risen, Virika left her sister, Hayatch and Urtiatch and their two horses to scout out what had become of the people who had landed there. She made her way up the outside of the caves and got close enough to see and hear them.

There was a half-finished structure standing a little off into the trees. One group around a campfire, for there were many of them and it seemed that more had left and would return, was near enough for her to distinctly eavesdrop on their conversation. They speculated that the new Cove Hold would soon be ready for Master Robinton.

With a heavy heart Virika relayed the news to her queen, who shared it with Urtiatch, who in turn gave it to Vyrania. As Virika made her way back as soundlessly as she could only two beings noticed her, and she did only see one of them. The queen fire lizard chattered anxiously at her, scolding her. The other she never knew. As soon as she was beating a fast retreat the little golden creature settled back to the shoulder of her human.

Farli closed her eyes. There was no need to inform Piemur of their sorrowful, swift visitor.

The other who had known her subtle intrusion, having been standing above her stargazing, waited until the others had fallen asleep before he collected what few things he needed and left, tracing the night observer.

000

Two days later, the twelfth after the dragon-people's eviction, they reported what they knew to the waiting listeners. "A hold is not going to move. They're not going anywhere. We'll have to stay here."

It was not rejected with incredible force, but neither was it accepted readily. They knew it was the truth, but none of them wanted to admit it. Finally Satch addressed them.

"There is no choice. If they move, they move, and we return. If they do not… Take each thing as it comes. We survive. That is all that matters."

Others reluctantly agreed, and they slowly filed off to return to whatever they had previously been doing.

000

Virika left all the others behind, having groomed her horse before the meeting, and wandered back down the beach, lost in thought. She eventually came to a log near the border between forest and beach and sat heavily with a sigh. "Another home… gone," she said quietly to herself eventually.

She failed to notice the young man who peered out of the trees behind her. As she said those words he came forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. With a growl she spun and twisted his arm in such a way that he sell over the log and went sprawling. Before he could do a thing she had jammed her knee into his neck and put the point of a knife at the side of his throat.

Neither moved, dredging up half-forgotten recognitions. "Eleneir?" she whispered at last, withdrawing the knife and falling on her behind in shock.

"Yeah," he said, sitting up and rubbing his neck. "Warn a body, will you?"

"Can't warn Darrinel and Sofreteh. You saw what happened." She stood and sheathed the knife. "How'd you get here?" she asked and pulled him so his feet. He noticed her so much stronger than when he had known her near on a year ago as a numbweed harvester's daughter.

"I came with the people to build Cove Hold. I found you listening in on them and followed you back."

"Vyrania'll be delighted to hear you're here," she told him and set off toward the new home, beckoning for him to follow. "We don't get much human communication."

"This I know," he said sourly, rubbing his neck again.

She grinned. "Sorry."

"Don't mention it. _Ever_, please!"

"Your manly dignity hurt that I got you?"

He just growled, but they both knew they other was joking by their wicked grins and went the rest of the way in silence. Both tried to think of something to say, but they had been so long apart they could not.

000

Hayatch, could you tell Vyrania Eleneir's here?

He is? The queen stopped, in the middle of practicing the dragon-people's method of unarmed fighting and accidentally dropped her father on the ground by her feet instead of yanking him over her head as Virika had done to Eleneir. How did he get here? How did her find us? Not that I'm not glad, but-

Later, please! Just tell the others not to try to jump us. He's had enough whoppings from girl for the day, I think…

They came up the beach a little later and Vyrania ran to hug her older friend. "Oof!" he exclaimed, then hugged her back, grinning. She let go and glared at her sister.

"You should've given us a little warning! All I got from Urtiatch was quick thing about Eleneir coming –and I was in the _middle_ of weaving a new basket for food– and that you whopped him instead of saying hello!"

"Hello," Virika said cheekily to Eleneir as she went to check on Cameratch as she cared for her seven eggs in the hot sands.

"She changed a lot in a year." He didn't know he murmured it out loud until Vyrania responded.

"We both changed. All _four_ of us, I guess. Hayatch and Urtiatch, too." She waved for Hayatch, who was spiraling down to them from the top of the rock above the caverns, to come faster. Urtiatch was not wasting any time in meeting someone new and was not far behind, and flying a straight line.

Vyrania introduced Eleneir to her queen and Hayatch hugged him with a bruising force.

"You are always welcome here…" she looked around "wherever 'here' may be."

Virika tried to concentrate on the seven shells before her, studying them, but Cameratch knew she was distracted, and by who.

"Eleneir is a good human," she commented, trying not to smirk.

She grinned a little foolishly. "Oh, he is that," she said unguardedly, and promptly turned pink under her tan.


	4. Hayatch's Rising

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own many of the characters in this story.

Chapter Four: _Hayatch's Rising_

Virika was sharpening her knife when Eleneif woke up. "You sleep like the dead," she commented to him, raising her voice to carry over the distance between the boulder she sat on and the forest edge where he had appeared.

"I was dead tired, anyway," he called back, coming over to sit beside her. They didn't talk. She concentrated on her knife, trying to ignore her quickened heartbeat and dry mouth as he sat close to her on the rock. He stared out over the ocean.

Blade sharp, she sheathed it and joined him in looking at the pounding waves. After a while he blinked and shook his head. "You fall asleep again?" she joked.

He half smiled. "Something the matter?" she asked. "You look pretty distracted."

Eleneir stood up, mouth tight and unhappy. Just as he was about to leave he turned. "Hayatch'll fly soon. Who's going to be there… with you?"

She didn't entirely comprehend and frowned. He turned pink and coughed self-consciously.

"She's flying well already, Ele-" Virika broke off and stiffened. She felt herself going pale and starting to tremble as she stared at her friend. Of course! She berated herself for her naïveté for the last full year. The dragon-folk were enough like their cousins they must have the same impact during mating flights.

Virika had just seen them as too human, but now she thought about it they were more deeply human, and therefore would likely not decrease the power of the connection.

"Oh," she said weekly.

He bit his lip and came back to the rock. "Sorry," he said. "That was kind of a stupid thing to say." She turned her face away abruptly and looked at the ocean, not directly in front of them but down the coast away from the young man. Her hair fell forward and screened her face enough so she could not see him. She felt her pulse speed again, racing faster than before.

After a bit Eleneir rook one of her hands from twisting her pant leg, wrinkling it. She looked at him, then away. He used one hand to hold both of hers to him and the other to turn her face gently toward him, slipping it under her shelter of hair to tilt her face towards him.

The young woman started to tremble ever so slightly as he gazed into her eyes. His were kind and soft; with them he told her how much he loved her. Eleneir leaned forward and tilted his face to touch theirs together, allowing his hand to slip away so she could turn from him if she chose. At last he whispered her name, then gently eased his lips over hers.

They didn't move for a long moment, then he slowly pulled away, looking into her eyes. She ducked her head to the side and fingered her lips. He still held the other hand. After a moment she glanced up at him shyly, still pink, then looked away again.

He tried to lighten the atmosphere of tension and embarrassment. "You didn't stab me," he joked. She smiled again, then returned his gaze briefly, but she couldn't keep doing it, and looked aside again. "I've been wanting to do that for a while, since you got 'lost'," he told her hoarsely. "I realized, once you were gone, apparently for good, what you meant to me."

She didn't respond for a minute, then suddenly sat up and turned to look him in the eye. "You're sure it's not just because Hayatch is going to rise?" she demanded, searching his face desperately. He stiffened, then gazed down at her, half in his arms already.

Gently he folded her into an embrace and leaned her back, then killed her sweetly.

When they parted she let him hold her. "Never," he whispered into her hair. "Not ever. Not for you."

000

Some time later they went back to the dragon-folk. Hayatch greeted them more formally than most of the time, without any expression on her face. She gave a sweeping bow to them, then left them. Eleneir and Virika exchanged glances. "We Impressed…" she muttered by way of explanation. "It works both ways."

They both went pink when they received the same treatment from all the others they encountered on their way to breakfast.

000

Two days later Virika was dozing in the sun next to Elenier, both of them on the rock when she heard/felt Hayach growl. She jerked awake and leapt off the rock, racing to where her friend stood, staring into space above the ocean.

"Hayatch?" She hesitated. The queen growled again and whirled, then raced away. "Hayatch!" the girl all but screamed as she dashed after her friend. Never had she felt so apart from the gold. She stopped and fell to her knees, clutching her head. It was as if Hayatch was gone from her forever, as if she had never been.

After a moment she became aware of Eleneir holding her, kneeling beside her. "Virika?" Virika felt Hayatch returning to her, stronger than ever imaginable before.

All her horror and terrifying _knowing_ came out in one frantic, deadly soft whisper. "She's rising."

"Vyrania!" He called, but she put her hand against his lips and turned so she could look him in t the eye.

"She's rising though, and you're-"

He tried to move away from her, but she gently held his arms. "I know," she whispered hoarsly. "It- it's all right. Stay. With me."

Eleneir looked down at her, then relaxed. "You're… sure?"

"Yes," she said."

Her lover bent down and kissed her, then stood and pulled her up in his arms. "We're going to have to go inside," he said. A shriek underscored his words, and they saw briefly a blur of gold and several bronze streaks spinning into the distance.

"I know," she said.

She looped her arms around his neck and he gazed down at her. They knew they were hardly ready, but they could not think of being sepperate just then.

He brought them to a deserted cave-room and lowered them both gently to the floor. Hesitantly they came together, shyly. But in the end it didn't matter. They were together, and whatever else might come after it, they would not face it alone.

000

The author expresses her regrets in this chapter that she had to end the story so abruptly, but she didn't want to either leave this story dangling around unfinished or delete the whole things. To her readers she would like to say that she might later continue the legacy of the half dragon race, but for now she must let others imagine what they will for the next generations of these remarkable people.


End file.
